If you struggle to answer the question, "what does the union do for me?", one of the most obvious answers involves the services we can provide for our members.

At the Region 3 office on Thursday May 25th and on Monday, June 12th, FREE, walk-in assistance is available for those trying to renew Educator Licenses Online. Here is a
flyer advertising
OH NO ELO!

Also, don't forget about our June Leadership Boot Camp and our August 7 Listening Project, the details of which can be found below. Now is the time for you to talk to members in your Local and plan to engage in these fun and important events.The goal of both is to build membership in your Local. With membership comes strength. With strength comes the power to affect change in your workplace. You should join us!

Peace

--Kathy Rohde

Regional Director

Staff Liaison to WR3 Membership / PR Committee

"The Connection: Membership Edition" is the brainchild of Region 3's Membership and PR Committee: Greg Ubbelohde (New Holstein EA) & Kandace Larsen (Marinette EA) are the co-chairs and welcome new committee members at any time! We all hope you find this once-a-month publication inspiring and helpful!

WEAC Region 3 welcomes SEVEN new members and FIVE Early Enrollment members in April!

Sheboygan's Matt Miller named state's Special Services Teacher of the Year

MAY 4, 2017

From the Department of Public Instruction

In a surprise ceremony at his school, Matthew W. Miller Sr., an English learner teacher at North High School in Sheboygan, was named Wisconsin's 2018 Special Services Teacher of the Year.

State Superintendent Tony Evers made the announcement during an all-school assembly. As part of the Teacher of the Year honor, Miller - who is a WEAC Region 3 member - will receive $3,000 from the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation.

Matthew Miller

While some would term his teaching style as "relationship building," Miller says he is trying to be a "future builder." He considers every learner a potential leader and tailors instruction to meet students' individual language, leadership, and life needs.

Please remember that it is NEA's recommendation that state affiliates should not be collecting our members' full social security numbers.

In the same vein - our responsibility to protect our members' sensitive data - we strongly recommend that the state affiliates should not be receiving membership forms (which contain sensitive data) electronically, unless the sender is utilizing an encrypted document or encrypted email. The sensitive data includes items where one person could attempt to impersonate or steal from another such as:

Birth date

Partial social security number

Credit card number

Bank account number

Snail mail (hard to believe) is probably the safest method to receive a newly filled out membership form. This article hyperlinked below (though almost 2 years old, is still valid) explains why emails are susceptible to hacking.

All too often we hear, "there's no reason to hold a meeting if there's nothing to report/decide/vote on." Or, we hear, "I'm not sure we have a union because there are never any meetings." But mostly, we hear, "I don't have TIME to go to ANOTHER meeting."

In December, we introduced the 10-minute meeting and the ways it can address all of the above. In January, we offered NEA Benefits as a topic for a 10-minute meeting, in February, we took on voter registration and information about the primary election, in March we offered a simple handout for union contact information, and in April we talked about Non-renewal and Renewal of Individual Teacher Contracts.

We'd like to hear from you! Are you trying the 10-minute meeting approach? How's it working? Reply
here to give us feedback.

This month, here's another topic:

At a 10-minute meeting, you can share this important information with your members (thanks for sharing, Chris Heller!):

How to Read Your WRS Statement

Recently you received your Department of Employee Trust Funds / WRS statement in the mail.

Click here to see some facts about your retirement pension - did you know that WRS is the 9th largest public pension fund in the US and 24th largest public/private pension fund in the world?

And, you can download a FREE ebook to learn more about your retirement benefit by clicking on the image below: